TAMPA, Fla. – He was 5-foot-11, his arms sort of stopped just below his waist, and he didn’t heat up many stopwatches.

NFL scouts risk ridicule if they bring a James Harrison to the attention of coaches on draft day. So they didn’t.

It was 2004. There were 255 players drafted, including 28 linebackers. None was Harrison, even though few of them had two sacks of Ben Roethlisberger, the way Harrison did at Kent State. But, hey, it was the Mid-American Conference.

Besides, everyone said, the scheme made him look good.

And they still say it.

Even though Harrison, undrafted and then waived twice by the Pittsburgh Steelers, was the Defensive Player of the Year because he had 16 sacks, an interception and forced seven fumbles this season.

Even though he was a Steelers captain and a Pro Bowl selection last season.

Some think Harrison thrives only because defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, 71 and close to shooting his age on the golf course, has cleared the stage and shined a light on Harrison and, from the other side, LaMarr

Woodley.

You know who hates that type of reasoning, hates the assumption that schemes make players? Players do.

“This guy’s getting blocked and he’s beating his man,” said Rod Woodson, of the NFL Network and a probable Hall of Famer in the Class of ’09. “There’s no scheme that accounts for his athletic ability. This guy is Greg Lloyd (Steelers blitzer of the early ’90s) all over again.”

“The players are the ones who do the things that let the head coach live in the big house on the hill,” said Warren Sapp, also of the NFL Network, rolling his eyes. “Look at Mike Martz. He was running the Rams’ offense and they won a Super Bowl. Where is he now? Do you see him having success with anybody else?”

LeBeau, a players’ coach, agrees.

“James Harrison would be an effective player in any alignment,” LeBeau said.

But it’s LeBeau’s 3-4, and the zone blitz that he basically invented, that endures in Pittsburgh, regardless of who wears the uniform.

That’s the uniqueness of the NFL. Other teams in other sports have ways to play, core beliefs, but they will gladly tear a few pages out of the book to accommodate talent. A baseball club, for instance, might prefer ground-ball pitchers because of the quality of its infielders, but it wouldn’t pass on Ervin Santana.

In football, there are round holes, and coaches insist on round pegs. Because the Steelers run a 3-4, they love linebackers.

“There’s a lot more people in this country 240 pounds than there are 300,” LeBeau said, “so we’ve got a bigger pool to draw from.”

And in some ways that validates the player-over-

scheme argument. Yes,

LeBeau’s scheme gave

Harrison a window, but he jumped through it, without much caring what he shattered.

“It’s a little bit of both, with him,” said Charley Casserly, former GM of the Redskins and Texans. “He’s got such a tremendous motor and great strength. He plays 60 or so plays.

“Nobody’s kept him blocked for 60 plays.”

“It depends on what you want a linebacker to be,” Harrison said. “Depending on the height and weight you want. I just play the position. I’m just trying to make the team.

“You can’t be MVP if you don’t make the team.”

Harrison plays standing up, but he’s in the three-point stance when asked about his journey, which included a trip to Kent State when academics barred him from the Big Ten.

“He can be a tough guy, and we had some character issues at first,” said Greg Colby, Harrison’s defensive coordinator at Kent State and now the coach at Millersville (Pa.).

“I learned that I couldn’t call out James in front of everybody. But I could say anything I wanted to him if it was just he and I. Once we got past that, he was great. You get to know him and he’s really a great guy. Once he makes up his mind to do something on the field, he’s gonna do it unless you shoot him.”

And, yeah, Harrison was tough on Big Ben when Kent State beat Miami of Ohio in 2003. Just file this away: Colby’s strategy was to keep Roethlisberger in the pocket and limit his scrambling, which is what Baltimore players said Arizona should try Sunday.

Harrison is merely another example of why draft day is basically a hot-

air balloon. So is running back Willie Parker, also undrafted in 2004 and the holder of the Super Bowl record for longest TD run.

“My last Super Bowl, I was on special teams,” Harrison said. “But there are 32 teams. As long as one likes you, you’re good.”

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